Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Is the John Van Bergen gold dust 5th earlier than 1874 ? John Van Bergen did not advertise his Gold Dust agency until September of 1873, but I always though they were in the 1871 or 1872 range. Wilson states in his book that Barkhouse Brothers were not formed until 1874. Take a look at the two below ads, both before 1874, and the city directory listings. This new evidence points towards the John Van Bergen bottle being either 1872 or 1873 at the absolute oldest. The last pit to produce any Gold Dusts also contained Empire sodas, Bay Cities, and a blue Ghirardelli soda as well as a early variant circle Cutter and a busted OK Castle Fifth.

The night started like any other. Probing and probing, though about 2 feet of fill, on the entire property. After about an hour, we punched through the fill and hit an ash layer at the 6 foot level. That was the only evidence of cultural material anywhere on the property deeper than 3 feet, it had to be a privy. We took a quick break, then eagerly began plowing into the privy. The first 2 feet was brutal, nothing but pure brick, locked together like leggos. Eventually, an hour later, we broke through and hit clean hard clay at the 3 foot level. The next 3 feet was pretty smooth, just clay and the occasional fragment of pottery. The pieces looked old, at least 19th century, so we were confident we were not in a big deep TOC privy. We quickly fell into a fluffy ash layer and began pulling out 1880s pieces, first a crock beer, then a crude looking whiskey neck. Full of bubbles, with a giant drip, it had to be a slick. We were wrong ! The next piece out was the crudest looking Our Choice Brickwedel 5th I've ever seen. Hammer whittled, foaming with bubbles, in a nice yellow olive color. Of course, it was broken. More broken wines and crock beers appeared. Next up with a broken olive large letter Renz's; this guy was a drinker! I kept digging and more and more bottles cam out, but all slick generic types. Clunk, I felt a larger bottle. As I wiped away the layer, I could see the distinct outline of a embossed whiskey. I kept working it until I saw the word S.F, it was an embossed 5th, and not a Cutter. That is a rarity, almost anywhere you dig. As I wiped away the last of the layer, I saw an animal.........a bird ! It was a sole agent Phoenix Bourbon, and the old variant with the heavier embossing. I pulled it out and handed it up to my partner. I jumped out and my partner relieved me.

He continued down below the first layer and the pieces slowly got older and at the 8 foot level, we hit a solid 1870s layer. More bottles came out, a nice topaz Udolpho Wolfes and a few black glass ales. We then hit another cap, that went another 2 feet. Finally at the 10 foot level, we hit the bottom and final layer, solid 1860s. First out were a few wildly colored pontiled sodas, one pure green, and the other a teal blue. Next out were a few food bottles, then a shiny looking medicine. We wiped away the layer and found some embossing. Chretien Pfister, Tricomalicum. A rare 1860s flint glass hair bottle, circa 1865. Apparently Mr. Pfister ran a hair dressing saloon up in San Francisco from 1858 to 1872. Back to the privy, my partner finished off the bottom layer, and popped out a few more food bottles and few broken cathedral pickles in beautiful shades of teal and green. A few more aqua sodas and black glass ales came out before the final later petered out. All said, the privy bottomed out at 11 feet.